Al Roker – The National Wildlife Federation Bloghttp://blog.nwf.org
The National Wildlife Federation's blogThu, 08 Dec 2016 18:09:20 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Wildlife Olympians on Today Showhttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/wildlife-olympians-on-today-show/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/wildlife-olympians-on-today-show/#respondFri, 14 Feb 2014 00:00:18 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=90850The Olympics are here and with them, a celebration of the world’s best athletes. In keeping with that theme, for my latest appearance on the Today Show I brought wild animals that are impressive athletes in the game of survival.

Although small, Arctic foxes are extreme winter survivors. Their thick, white winter coat protects them from the crushing Arctic cold. Their white fur offers winter camouflage, but they shed it in spring and grow a gray-brown coat (because even in the Arctic the snow melts for a short time in summer). Artic foxes feeds on rodents, birds and in the winter they follow polar bears out onto the sea ice and scavenges their seal kills.

Bennett’s Wallaby

Bennett’s wallaby photo by vogmae via Flickr Creative Commons

Bennett’s wallabies are a small kangaroo species that live in Australia. Despite their small size, they are athletic long jumpers and high jumpers. They can make leaps of 25 feet with a running start – that’s over 8 times their body length. That’s like a 6 foot man jumping 48 feet. Thy can also jump up to 6 feet high straight up.

Alligators take home the gold for the extreme strength of their bite. An alligator can bite down with a force of over 2,000 lbs. That’s like getting a car dropped on you. Alligators are found in Florida and coastal wetlands north to the Carolinas and west to Texas. In winter they dig burrows in banks and go dormant. Once endangered, their population is now fully recovered due to the protections of the Endangered Species Act.

Coatimundis, or coatis for short, are natural gymnasts. They are agile on the ground and can also traverse tree branches like a balance beam. With their striped tails and pugnacious attitudes, it’s not hard to see that coatis are relatives of raccoons. Unlike their masked cousins, coatis but active during the day, not night. Like their cousins, they are omnivores and will eat just about anything. They are found from Desert Southwest down into Central and South. America.

Patagonian cavies, also called maras, are large rodents native to South America. Only capybaras, beavers and porcupines are larger. Unlike their larger cousins, cavies are natural sprinters. With their long legs, they can run at speeds of 45 miles per hour.

In honor of this annual celebration of National Wildlife Federation’s 40-year-old Certified Wildlife Habitat program, I brought some “backyard wildlife” on my Today Show segment this week. But these animals are definitely NOT the songbirds and butterflies that typically show up in a wildlife-friendly garden.

Instead, I brought species that might surprise you if you spotted them in your garden. My goal was to let folks know that species other than birds and butterflies need our help and can benefit from wildlife-friendly gardens, and also to point out what to do to avoid conflict with some of these species.

I mean, groundhogs, alligators and beavers aren’t necessarily the most welcome species in the garden. But two other predators I featured in the segment definitely are species you want around.